Dutch Oven cooking in Paradise

Well I promised you that I would post some recipes from my camp cooking up North, so I am finally getting around to it.
Before we get to cookin' let me just say what a wonderful time we had with friends and family. We were camped for a week in one of the prettiest places on earth and the weather was just about perfect!

See what I mean?

 



So our outdoor cookin' dutch-oven (DO) menu today is short ribs, my favorite DO taters and rolls. I call them "choke rolls", because the first time that I made them my father-in-law nearly choked to death when he ate one in too big a hurry! Actually, the roll recipe comes from Pioneer Woman Cooks, but I have adapted it to the dutch oven.

So here we go!

Let's start with a short primer on dutch oven cookin'. In the olden days the camp cook would need to burn hardwood... probably mesquite in the lower parts of Arizona or oak in the higher areas. The wood coals would be used to heat the dutch ovens on top and bottom.

Most dutch oven cooks today use charcoal to heat their ovens. I also use a high capacity burner to light my charcoal because I'm basically an impatient person. I hate having to wait on coals to get hot. This method delivers hot coals in about five minutes.

Here's a dutch oven all loaded up with hot coals on top and bottom. This is how you cook stuff in a DO. Notice that there are two or even three times as many coals on top as on the bottom... remember third grade science class? Heat rises! That's an importat lesson to remember when cookin' in a DO.

Here's what the coals on the bottom look like before you set the DO on top. Notice that the coals are set in sort of a pattern... an outside circle and an inside circle... sorta. That gives you even heat distribution for the bottom of the oven.

We start with the rolls. Sorry to disappoint you bread purists. No dough production in this meal. I skipped all of that and picked up some frozen rolls instead. Just arrange them evenly in the dutch oven... wait a few hours for them to rise and cook 'em. What's not to love? Notice that I have greased the bottom of the dutch oven with Crisco. Just put the lid on them and leave them alone until they rise. We will return to these later.

Here's the brand of rolls that I use. You will find them in the frozen food section at your supermarket.

While the rolls rise we will begin the meat. Here's about fifteen pounds of short ribs.

Here's what they look like after you have seared them in some hot oil in a pan. I browned them in the same dutch oven that they will cook in, then I removed them to this sheet pan.

By the way, you will need a #16 dutch oven to hold this amount of meat. If you are cooking for just a few, obviously you will want to use a smaller pot for less meat. The #16 is the largest size dutch oven that most manufacturers produce. You will find dutch ovens in sporting goods stores and outdoor equipment stores everywhere. The largest and most popular manufacturer of dutch ovens is Lodge.  You can now buy them already seasoned, which saves you a lot of time and effort, not to mention sweat and noxious fumes, since seasoning a dutch oven requires baking it in an oven or in a hot BBQ to burn off all of the wax that coats it from the factory, then wiping oil (I use Crisco) all over the inside and outside, along with the lid, and continuing the baking until a patina is baked onto the surfaces of the oven (and lid).

Anyway, back to cookin'.

After the meat is browned, chop up some onions and carrots.

Dump 'em in the pot with some hot oil.

Till they look kinda like this.

 

 

Then add some 'shrooms... mushrooms, ya know?

 

 

After browning and stirrin' some more, dump the meat backin and stir it up again. You will notice from this picture that the DO is sittin' on top of the burner during this stage. We are using medium heat, just like you would use on your stove top at home. When we get all of the ingredients in, then we will put the lid on it and pile the coals on top and bottom.

 

 

Here's a bunch a stuff that we're gonna add next. Nothing exotic here, pretty basic stuff. That's onion soup & dip mix hidin' behind the beer can.

 

 

Here goes! First the onion soup mix, then a can of mushroom soup, then a couple of beers... actually I think I ended up with three in there.

 

 

Then a box of beef stock.

 

Put the lid on it and cook it with coals on top and bottom. We're gonna let that cook for about three hours. Don't worry, we'll check on it in a little while.

 

 

Here I am standin' around staring at my pots. That always seems to help the cookin' process.

 

 

OK. Let's start the potatoes. First we washed and chopped about a dozen or more taters, then peeled and chopped eight or nine large carrots. Sorry about the blurry pic... only one that I shot.

 

 

Then chop three large onions and a couple a bell peppers, use any color that you like.

 

 

Now the fun part! Chop up a pound of bacon and fry it in your oven.

 

 

 

Add the onions and bell peppers. By the way, I'm using a #14 oven for the taters.

 

 

Now dump the potatoes and carrots in. Did I mention that you need to season the potatoes/carrots? Sorry. I had garlic salt and course ground pepper, so that's what I used. Sometimes I use Cavendar's seasoning mix for this dish, but you can season them with your favorite spices... be bold!

 

 

Stir it up with a stick... a wooden paddle or spoon is best. You don't want to scratch your DO with metal utensils. Now add a couple of cans of beer. I like beer... to cook with I mean.

 

Now put the lid on it and put coals on top and bottom. You're gonna want to take the lid off and stir the taters once in a while.

 

 

Notice that I have stacked one DO on top of the udder one here. This saves space, but I wouldn't recommend doing this for too long, since there's lots more coals on the bottom than I would normally use. I was just doing this for a few minutes while I prepared more coals and started melting my butter for the bread roll recipe.

 

 

Speakin o' which, here's the rest of the ingredients for the rolls...

 

 

Brush the tops of the rolls with butter... lots of butter (notice that they have now risen nicely), then the sea salt, rosemary and thyme. Put a lid on it, fire up the coals again and bake it.

 

 

Check the meat. You will want to sorta poke the brown pieces down into the soup and pull the meat off the bottom and let it have a turn up on top where it can get brown too.

 

 

Now check the taters... stir em too.

 

 

Try not to peek at the rolls too often or they won't ever brown... see what I mean?

 

 

It's time to stir some cheese into the potatoes... maybe three or four cups... leave some of it piled up on top... put the lid back on and let her cook some more.

 

You may need to add some coals to the meat after a couple of hours of cooking time. I also took the lid off of the meat and let it cook for a while with lots of coals on the bottom to reduce the liquid and thicken it.

 

 

Meat's done!

 

 

Taters too!

 

 

Here's the bread. Eat slow so you don't choke!

 

 

Time to plate it... sorry I slopped some on the side of the plate but hey, we're camping!

 

Sorry, but I won't be providing printable recipes for these dishes... that would make the cookin' experience way too tame. This is wild west cookin' folks! Get out there and get to cookin'!

 

 

Chili

I'm getting ready to go to archery elk camp. We're going to spend a week camped with a bunch of folks, a few of which will actually be elk hunting. Most of my time will be spent reading, napping, hiking, and of course eating, which means camp cooking. Stay tuned for some dutch oven cooking recipes here on my blog in a couple of weeks. For now, you will have to make do with my chili recipe, which I am preparing in advance for elk camp.

If you are a chili purist, then you probably won't be a fan of my chili. For one thing, it has beans in it. My apologies if this offends anyone, but I like beans. I also like the combination of taste and texture that beans add to the meat and seasonings. Neither is my chili completely "scratch" chili. I use store-bought beans, instead of homemade beans. I like the Ranch-Style Beans, because they contain some chili sauce, which lends to the flavor. I'm all about taste, and I don't mind taking a short cut or two in my cooking either. Call me easy... I don't mind.

Here are all of the ingredients except the meat.

 

You will also need a large pot, preferrably a heavy dutch oven. I have a couple of these... the primo kitchen dutch oven... Le Creuset. I highly recommend you invest in one. This is my large one, cause I'm gonna make a bunch of chili today.

 

 

I am using six pounds of 80% lean ground beef. I know that's alot, feel free to cut the quantities down.

 

Dump all of the ground meat into the pot.

 

 

Brown and drain the fat.

 

 





 

Add a chopped onion.

 

Then add chili powder, cumin, garlic (I know that wasn't shown... I forgot), salt, pepper. I'm not going to tell you quantities on any of these seasonings, it is to taste. You're taste is not my taste, so figure it out for yourself.

 

It oughta look something like this after you stir in the spices. If it aint red, then you need to quit being a wimp and add some more chili powder. If you're concerned about heat, add paprika instead of more chili powder. You will get color and mild flavor without adding heat.

 

Next add the three large cans of Ranch Style beans, a large can of  diced tomatoes and two or three tablespoons worcestershire sauce.

 





 

Then add two beers to the pot. I'm using dark beer, but use whatever you have.

 

 

We're almost done! Now for my favorite part. Give her a good sqirt of hot sauce. You can use whatever type of red chili sauce that you like. I like this stuff. It's slightly sweet and good on everything except chocolate cake... hmmm, might need to try that. We go thru about a case of this stuff a year.

 

Now you stir and wait. Let it cook on medium heat for an hour, and then turn it down and let it simmer for another hour or two. You want it to reduce and thicken. It will darken in color and become rich and thick.

 

Here you go. Chili's done!

 

A big ol' hunk of cornbread would go real good with this bowl. I'm gonna make some when I get to camp too.